1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a sun roof device for a motor vehicle, and more particularly, to a lid guide structure employed in the sun roof device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to clarify the task of the present invention, one conventional lid guide structure for a sun roof device disclosed in Japanese Patent First Provisional Publication No. 58-218423 will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10 of the accompanying drawings.
Referring to FIG. 9, there is shown one corner portion of the lid guide structure 1001. The guide structure 1001 comprises a rainwater gutter portion 1003 which extends along the periphery of the guide structure 1001, and a guide rail portion 1005 which extends in parallel with the gutter portion 1003, as shown.
As is seen from FIG. 10, outboard and inboard walls 1009a and 1009b of the gutter portion 1003 have respectively longitudinally extending water stoppers 1007a and 1007b projected toward each other by a given small distance "l". Due to provision of the stoppers 1007a and 1007b, rainwater in the gutter portion 1003 is prevented from running out over the walls 1009a and 1009b even when the vehicle on which the lid guide structure 1001 is mounted is subjected to a severe toss.
The guide rail portion 1005 includes paired side walls one of which serves also as the inboard wall 1009b of the gutter portion 1003. These paired side walls define therebetween a guide rail groove 1013 and respectively have longitudinally extending cylindrical grooves 1011a and 1011b formed therein. The cylindrical grooves 1011a and 1011b have driving cables 21 longitudinally slidably received therein.
However, due to its inherent construction, the above-mentioned lid guide structure 1001 has the followinwg drawbacks.
That is, as is seen from FIG. 9, the lid guide structure 1001 is shaped to have a corner portion for matching with a rectangular sun roof opening of the vehicle roof to which the guide structure 1001 is connected. However, due to the widened construction caused by the parallel arrangement of the rainwater gutter portion 1003 and the guide rail portion 1005, it is very difficult to provide the lid guide structure 1001 with a neatly curved corner portion by bending the same. Thus, hitherto, a measure has been employed in which, for facilitating the bending, an outboard part of the structure 1001 at the area which is to be bent is partially cut out by a stamping machine. After the bending, a plastic corner piece (not shown) is connected to the cut portion to reform the guide structure 1001, more specifically, the rainwater gutter portion 1003.
However, as is seen from FIG. 9, the bending has sometimes caused formation of many cracks 1017 at a remaining bottom wall 1015 of the rainwater gutter portion 1003. Of course, these cracks make the external appearance of the guide structure 1001 poor.
In addition to the above drawback, the following drawback is further possessed by the lid guide structure 1001.
That is, in order to prevent an inward inclination of the outboard wall 1009a of the rainwater gutter portion 1003 upon bending of the structure 1001, an elastomeric elongate spacer 1021 (see FIG. 10) must be closely put in the gutter portion 1003. However, because of provision of the inwardly projected water stoppers 1007a and 1007b, the elastomeric elongate spacer has to be inserted into the gutter portion 1003 awkwardly from one terminal end of the gutter portion 1003, not from the open top of the gutter portion 1003. Furthermore, after the bending, it becomes necessary to remove the spacer from the gutter portion 1003 through the terminal end. These works for handling the spacer are very troublesome. In fact, the removal of the spacer from the gutter portion 1003 is quite difficult because under such condition the spacer is considerably compressed by the outboard and inboarad walls 1009a and 1009b as a result of the bending.